Sourcefire vulnerability protection in lieu of patches.

Open source innovator and Snort creator, Sourcefire has announced that the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team (VRT) delivered rules that protected Sourcefire customers and Snort users for close to a month prior to the recent Microsoft vulnerability disclosure (Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-061). Sourcefire's Security Enhancement Update (SEU) 111, published on October 17, 2007, addressed today's vulnerability, which impacts Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer.

"Sourcefire customers and Snort users depend on us to deliver the best protection as quickly as possible, and we consistently live up to this expectation on Microsoft Tuesdays, often delivering coverage before the vulnerability is announced," said Matt Watchinski, Director of the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team. "This fast and comprehensive protection, combined with Sourcefire's innovative security solutions, provides users with confidence that their critical assets are secure from both known and unknown threats.'

Prior to Microsoft's disclosure, the Sourcefire VRT had already created, tested and delivered Snort rules designed to detect attacks targeting the Microsoft vulnerability identified in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-061. This critical Internet Explorer 7 remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the Windows shell handles specifically crafted URIs (uniform resource identifiers) that are passed to it. If the Windows shell did not sufficiently validate these URIs, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability and execute arbitrary code. Microsoft has only identified ways to exploit this vulnerability on systems using Internet Explorer 7. However, the vulnerability exists in a Windows file, Shell32.dll, which is included in all supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.